Munster face new challenges in away fixture against Castres

“CASTRES will be a different battle for us compared to the likes of Lions and Stade Francais, who prefer the unstructured play” says interim Munster Rugby head coach Ian Costello as his side gear up for the second round of the Investec Champions Cup.

With only six day turn around Munster will have to gear themselves up again for a trip to France on Friday night after their successful opening round performance against Stade in Thomond Park over the weekend.

Munster ran out a 33-7 bonus point victory over the Paris outfit in front of a 17,241 crowd at the Limerick stadium. The game had a huge amount of bite to it with tries coming from Thaakir Abrahams, Shane Daly, Alex Kendellen, Tom Farrell and Gavin Coombes, with Jack Crowley adding four conversions to the scoreboard.

What was most impressive about Munster's display in Thomond Park was their scramble defence and choke tackling, which won them back the ball on many occasions throughout the contest which allowed them to keep Stade Francais from scoring until the 58 minute.

This weekends game will be Munster's first trio to Castres since 2022, where they came away with a tight three-point victory.
Speaking about Friday evening's opposition Costello went on to say “Castres are very strong up front, very physical, brutal almost and we are expecting a toe-to-toe battle in a very tough place to win.”

Another take away from Munster's home victory was competitiveness of the squad with Costello making the case that a lot of fit players did not make the match-day 23.

He touched on the need for freshness this week with the tight turn around stating: “We have a huge competitiveness in our squad now which is great to see and we will use some of the players not featured in the first round this week and then others will have to fight for their places and that only makes the squad better.

“It makes my life harder because I have to make a decision on who is traveling but it ultimately drives everyone forward.”
The game against Castres will be Munster's final Champions Cup game this side of Christmas with Saracens and Northampton Saints to play in January.